I agree that foreign investors would be the most likely interested parties. My point in mentioning the publicly traded theme park operators was directed more at the health (or lack thereof) of the theme park industry, as a whole. With the economy in the tank, fewer and fewer people will plunk down $50-60-70 for a theme park ticket. Disney's numbers don't appear to be affected as much yet because they are a huge draw for Europeans this time of year, but these second-tier companies will feel a pinch soon (and, as you can see, many have already) as people continue their personal belt-tightening. Given the poor expected performance going forward, A-B's theme park assets may be worth more to InBev if they can cut some costs and wait for an economic turnaround - say one year.

Actually, from a pure fiscal standpoint, I'd argue that sooner the better to get rid of them, because it brings back 4-5 billion from the sale. If theme parks are losing money this year, then waiting a year would only mean loss revenue which a future sale of the park may or may not recoup. I'd try to sell it to a company that benefits from a weak dollar like a foreign company. If the market is really going to turn around in a year, then the foreign invester wins from the early buy, rather than waiting for the dollar to make gains against the euro or pound.

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

A quintessential endorsement - don't give me any flavor cuz I just wanna get drunk.

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

A quintessential endorsement - don't give me any flavor cuz I just wanna get drunk.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that InBev is going to start brewing Bud overseas and importing it to the U.S. After all, the grain is here, so the costs of shipping the raw materials overseas and then importing the final product would be prohibitive. Seems to me they're most likely to start brewing Bud overseas for those markets. (God only knows why, but Budweiser has become a trendy beer in parts of Europe.) If they tamper with the recipes, it will be specifically for those local markets, like Coke does. They'll also use AH's distribution network to get shelf space in the States for their own products.

As long as Americans keep drinking Bud products, those brewerys and the distribution centers will stay open. The jobs lost are most likely going to be white-collar gigs like marketing, accounting, etc, since that kind of work doesn't need to be done close to the final market for the product. The real loser is probably the city of St. Louis, where the company has spent a lot of dollars to help out the community.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that InBev is going to start brewing Bud overseas and importing it to the U.S. After all, the grain is here, so the costs of shipping the raw materials overseas and then importing the final product would be prohibitive. Seems to me they're most likely to start brewing Bud overseas for those markets. (God only knows why, but Budweiser has become a trendy beer in parts of Europe.) If they tamper with the recipes, it will be specifically for those local markets, like Coke does. They'll also use AH's distribution network to get shelf space in the States for their own products.

As long as Americans keep drinking Bud products, those brewerys and the distribution centers will stay open. The jobs lost are most likely going to be white-collar gigs like marketing, accounting, etc, since that kind of work doesn't need to be done close to the final market for the product. The real loser is probably the city of St. Louis, where the company has spent a lot of dollars to help out the community.

You make an excellent point. The price of fuel is now a significant enough factor that economists have suggested that some factories in the US will re-open, simply because transporting finished goods from overseas has become expensive enough to eliminate the cost advantage of cheap labor overseas.

I am amazed by the folks here who hold A-B in such contempt. If you don’t like the beer, that’s your right and preference, of course. They didn’t get to be among the world’s biggest by being slouches, though. SOMEBODY out there must like the stuff, and the appeal is widespread.

Drink your microbrews, which have their place, but don’t discount that Bud appeals to more people than other beer in the world. I enjoy microbrews too, but for my Sunday afternoon bbqing, I’ll reach for a Bud, thank you very much.

This is kind of like bashing Walmart….maybe you don’t shop there, but you are in the minority. I personally don’t care for Wally World that much, but I admire their successful business model And folks, this is all about business.

Yeah, but this is a food and beverage board, not a business or finance board. We talk about good restaurants and food and beverage manufacturers. If you look at any of those groups that rate beers, you never see the Bud family of products get the highest scores. A lot of the comments about beers herein are similar to those made in other threads on this board discussing beer.

I am amazed by the folks here who hold A-B in such contempt. If you don’t like the beer, that’s your right and preference, of course. They didn’t get to be among the world’s biggest by being slouches, though. SOMEBODY out there must like the stuff, and the appeal is widespread.

Drink your microbrews, which have their place, but don’t discount that Bud appeals to more people than other beer in the world. I enjoy microbrews too, but for my Sunday afternoon bbqing, I’ll reach for a Bud, thank you very much.

This is kind of like bashing Walmart….maybe you don’t shop there, but you are in the minority. I personally don’t care for Wally World that much, but I admire their successful business model And folks, this is all about business.

that's the point. A-B is about business, not making high quality beer. They've cornered the market on cheap beer at a cheap price. The fact they sell more has nothing to do with quality. McDonalds sells more burgers than anyone else in the world. That does not mean they sell the best burger.

As per the mass appeal, truth be known, most things that appeal to th masses, do so, because they appeal to the lowest common denominator. That doesn't mean the lowest quality either. Most A-B beers are infact, crisp beers. That has a lot to do with the rice. And A-B even has stated that the rice is not used merely as a filler, but on purpose, because it creates a refreshing feeling. And that is the mass appeal. The beer is, on the whole, refreshing...like water. Cold, crisp and clean. It's not that it tastes good, it's that is doesn't taste bad. It's nopt that the beer is attractive to the distinguished beer tastes, rather, the beer isn't offensive to anyone. That's what mass appeal is all about.

If that's one's idea of a high quality beer, then by all means, one is going to love A-B beers. If one, however, believes that quality is in: boldness of flavor, aroma, texture, and complexity, then one is not going to find A-B beers palatable.

Advertising is crucial to the success of A-B. Being the cheapest and the most abundant beer in the stadium is helpful. Selling $9.99 18 packs of Bud cans in rural/suburban area stores compared to $8.99/six pack bottles of microbrew, is helpful. Being an institution in American culture in movies, tv, sporting events and even art, is helpful. The fact that a couple generations of Americans had only the Bud type of beer available to them, helped A-B, as they used a solid business model to dominate other similar beers like Miller and Coors.

And that brings me full circle, that it was their business model that made them successful, not the beer. Beer in the U.S. was ALL similar to Bud post prohibition (when A-B could actually grow as a company). Now that they're engrained in the American psyche, they're here to stay. In fact, it's that they are seen as an American institution rather than an American business that has outraged the general populatione with this sale to InBev. "What, pray tell, is left when one takes the American out of Budweiser?" Folks didn't drink Bud because it was good, they drank it, because it was American. "Piss on the Germans! Screw the Canadians! I drink American Beer! And I drive American trucks!"

I know St. Louis has its love affair with Bud. And frankly, it should. The same way Pennsylvania has a love affair with Hersheys. the company gives back to St. Louis and the area, from schools to community centers to charities and more. The company employs St. Louis. The company is integrated into St. Louis life. There's no question, one doesn't crap where they eat. If I lived in St. Louis, I'd probably drink a Bud before a Yuengling, too.

However, the people of St. Louis must realize, that popularity often has little to do with quality. And while Bud is the most popular beer, it is a far cry from being the highest quality beer. I'll even re-say that when I'm at the ballpark drinking a Bud from a can shapped like a long neck bottle. My thought isn't on the beer one way or the other, but rather I'm thinking, "this is better than being at work, or mowing my lawn."

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

A quintessential endorsement - don't give me any flavor cuz I just wanna get drunk.

I'm sorry, but i'm not one of those people that sit there and drink 1 or 2 beers and leave it at that. Yeah, I have a problem, but when I have a beer it usually means theres going to be many more after the first one. I dont want to drink some import that causes me to feel like I just ate a Thanksgiving dinner just because its the flavor of the month.

I'll admit that Bud-Lite is my favorite beer and I drink like a baby drinks mothers milk. I just hope they dont mess with it. As for other beers, I drink to get drunk, not to just sit in the corner with a collared shirt, sipping on some yuppie beer. Sam Adams bloats me and is heavy regardless of which one I drink. Local beers like Yuengling and Iron City are just awful. Miller Light might be the worst beer i've ever drank and Coors is just barely passable.

A quintessential endorsement - don't give me any flavor cuz I just wanna get drunk.

I'm sorry, but i'm not one of those people that sit there and drink 1 or 2 beers and leave it at that. Yeah, I have a problem, but when I have a beer it usually means theres going to be many more after the first one. I dont want to drink some import that causes me to feel like I just ate a Thanksgiving dinner just because its the flavor of the month.

maybe you should switch to liquor. As the saying goes, "Beer and wine are fine, but liquor is quicker."

I don't get the controversy here. Are y'all saying the Belgians can't brew beer?

I used to work for a liquor store, and one time me and my buddy scored invitations to a Belgian beer tasting at the Chelsea Art Museum in NYC. It was a very snobby event, filled with pretentious people, and most of the beer there was absolutely horrible. I know that this does not cover every Belgian beer, but this is my one experience with the stuff...

Belgian beer is an aquired taste. It's much more rustic and full flavored. Going from a Bud to a Belgian (ie: Saison Dupont) is like going from plain minute rice to full-on jambalaya.

And again, I'm not saying Bud is bad. A Bud and a Belgian are just two entirely different beers brewed to taste entirely different. Sometimes you want a light simple thirst quencher. Sometimes you want a flavor explosion. Your need dictates your drink.

Bud sponsors the zoo in St. Louis so we can get in for nothing. Living in Milwaukee as I did, I know that corporate sponsorship of quality of life items keeps them going like nothing else can, as we learned when Schlitz and Pabst left, not to mention Allen-Bradley.